Balls N (Rat)Birds - Week 15

This is one of those "what might have been" games if we miss the playoffs. So without further ado:

BallsThe Whole Offense -- We took an elite defense, almose fully armed (save L. Webb) and absolutely incinerated it. No sacks allowed, no punts, no turnovers, no problem The Whole Defense -- Seven sacks, two takeaways. Ray Rice largely invisible. Special mention to Barnes, Phillips and WeddleNorv -- The game plan for this game was a masterpiece, executed perfectlyLions -- Thanks for shutting up the Black Hole in the final minute and maybe driving a nail in the RaidersPats -- Thanks for preventing another week of Tebow-mania and planting the seed of doubt in the Donks

BirdsNovak -- A minor irritation on the miss, but you gotta make everything inside 40

This is one of those "what might have been" games if we miss the playoffs. So without further ado:

BallsThe Whole Offense -- We took an elite defense, almose fully armed (save L. Webb) and absolutely incinerated it. No sacks allowed, no punts, no turnovers, no problem The Whole Defense -- Seven sacks, two takeaways. Ray Rice largely invisible. Special mention to Barnes, Phillips and WeddleNorv -- The game plan for this game was a masterpiece, executed perfectlyLions -- Thanks for shutting up the Black Hole in the final minute and maybe driving a nail in the RaidersPats -- Thanks for preventing another week of Tebow-mania and planting the seed of doubt in the Donks

BirdsNovak -- A minor irritation on the miss, but you gotta make everything inside 40

Have at it folks.

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Seconded.

I might throw a ball in there for the Cheifs, because how they played today gives me hope they can beat the Broncos.

Philip Rivers - nearly flawless. SD's leader is a model for franchise quarterbacks forever.
Ryan Mathews - he was tenacious and Norv got him plenty of touches, especially when he was diving for the endzone.
Front 7 - They absolutely overran the offensive line and owned Flacco like a Pop Warner QB.

Birds:
Clary - the only black eye on the offense is clearly on the right side, his side. 66 gets tired, gets ruined. Rivers managed this game like a hall-of-famer but he has to because Clary is pure dog excrement.
Secondary - No the Ravens never got rolling but the front 7 seemed to hold down the fort on defense.
Tim Tebow - One more week of excitement? Dread? Worries? What is it with Norv? One more week with Norv turner as head coach and the Playoffs so close and yet so far out of reach. Thanks Timmy.

Balls:
Rivers - This is the PR we all recognize & love
Gaither - McNeill who?
Tolbert - For the spin move on Ray
Mathews - tough play, didn't let the fumble get him down
Barnes - only wish he'd ripped that stupid-looking fu manchu off Flacco as well
Spikes - great int & return
Floyd/VJ - some highlight catches in there today
Norv - great game plan. Having your weapons playing healthy makes a difference.

Baby Birds:
Novak - coulda been first 6 scoring drives & some short kickoffs
Jammer - hands of stone
Run D- coulda been much worse but still pushed around more than I would like

Philip Rivers – “Good Philip” makes his 3rd consecutive appearance, the man was an absolute surgeon last night! Eclipsed 4,000 passing yards for 4th straight season, only Peyton Manning & Drew Brees have also done that in NFL history.

Antwan Barnes – 4 sacks & an “assist” on SP’s interception, made sure his old team regrets letting him go.

Ryan Mathews – 10 yards shy of his 4th consecutive 100 yard rushing game, but eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season, and scored 2 touchdowns – could be turning into the versatile goal line weapon that LT was, and has by far the fewest carries of any 1,000 rusher in the NFL this year.

Vincent Jackson – 84 yards on only 3 catches, but eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards for the 3rd time in 4 seasons. Very smart decision to run with the ball vice throwing it into double coverage on the trick play in the 1st series.

Takeo Spikes – Athletic interception & a very good return, even if the yardage was wiped out by the excessive celebration penalty – the old man is showing his legendary endurance, late into this, his impressive 14th NFL season.

Malcom Floyd – 5 catches for 96 yards, to include a touchdown. Anyone else here really glad he chose to re-sign with us vice going to Baltimore this offseason? He make a real difference in our offense, and keeps it explosive when teams focus on VJ or Gates.

Eric Weddle – Saved an early touchdown with his diving deflection, always seems to be near the ball when we need it the most.

Mike Tolbert – “The Vulture” gets another short yardage touchdown, and his outstanding work on special teams cannot be overlooked either.

Chargers O-line – Terrific game by these men collectively, Rivers wasn’t sacked even once & the team rushed for 145 yards, to include two runs of 20+. Got 3 rushing touchdowns against a tough defense that doesn't give up many of them. Extra credit to Jared Gaither, another ex- Raven who made sure his old team did not forget him. His recovery of Ryan Mathews’ fumble in our 1st series was huge, kept our offense on the field & moving.

Greg Manusky – I’ve slammed him when our defense was inept, but must give him props now. Our defense dominated, holding Baltimore to only 89 yards rushing, (22 of them came on the 1st carry of the game) and pressuring Joe Flacco all night, sacking him 7 times & picking him off twice. (Really should’ve been 3 times, but Jammer dropped a relatively easy one)

Norv Turner – Apparently, the guy really wants to keep this gig! His game plan was absolutely brilliant, and executed to near perfection. We scored on our 1st five possessions, didn’t punt once in the game and only failed to get points on 2 offensive possessions – 1 was a missed field goal that hit the upright, and the other time was when we were running down the clock to end the game. The only thing missing was an appearance by Billy Volek, when the game was well in hand.

Baltimore wanted that game just as badly as we did, but Norv totally exposed that aging defense and gave them a brutal beating they won’t soon forget! We finally beat a team with a winning record, and we utterly dominated them! There is no chance that they simply “overlooked” us, the Ravens were desperately hoping to earn home field advantage and were in the mix for the top seed in the AFC but now will likely have to settle for the #5 seed and yet another road playoff game.

Birds:

None, although a few players came close to earning one and likely would’ve if the outcome of the game weren’t so one sided. It was another complete & impressive performance on both sides of the ball. If we do somehow sneak into the postseason, we seem to be peaking at the proper time.

Balls: Philip ******* Rivers! That's my boy! Glad I didn't completely give up. After 08 I learned that it's not over unless ts mathematically impossible. I hope that they just aren't teasing us again like last year.

Birds: Run D coulda been a bit more solid, but whatever total defense did some work.

What was the energy like, it sounded like all the Chargers fans were rabid!?

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The energy was there from kickoff to about 4 min left in the game. The fans in the stadium have not given up, that's a fact. It was one of the better games in a while fan wise. There were a good deal of Ravens fans, but not as bad as the Raiders or Packers games when it seemed the opposing fans outnumbered us and were much louder as well. The fans showed up big time last night, it helps when the D is playing good football.

What was the energy like, it sounded like all the Chargers fans were rabid!?

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The fans were consistantly loud and were going positively nuts each time the Chargers punched the Ravens in the mouth...figuratively speaking! The heavily outnumbered Ravens fans were as good as silent while Rivers and the offense were on the field. That was quite an evening!

It was definitely rockin' last night - SO much fun when the crowd gets into it. I haven't heard it that loud on 1st/2nd down in awhile which was nice too. Ravens fans I came across were all really cool and then quickly silenced